Growing Up Sexually

BAIGA(India)

More: Abor, Lingayats, Bengali, Punjabi; Rājpūts, Brahmans, Nagas, Chamars, Todas, Purum, Santals, Garos, Muria Gonds, Nimar Bahalis, Telugu, Lepcha, Lodha, Uttar Pradesh, Andamanese, Nicorbarese

Elwin (1939:p230-2)[1] noted that, apart from playing Houses (with coital implications), Baiga children, who are believed to be born with “a complete equipment of phallic knowledge”, improvise games such as “Cow and Bull, Horse and Mare, Cock and Hen, Pig and Sow, and play them with a wealth of realistic detail which reveals considerable physiological knowledge”; all this, of course, in the privacy of the jungle. “[Children’s] sexual consciousness is developed very early. […] Even when [parents] see their children indulging in erotic play, they simply laugh tolerantly. “Sometimes we say, “Why do it now? Wait a little”. But the children grow excited, so what should they do?”.

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, Berlin

Last revised: Sept 2004